Connecticut Cancer Partnership
13th Annual Meeting
December 6, 2016
Lisa Strelez McCooey, MPH, Director
DPH Comprehensive Cancer Program
Connecticut Department of Public Health
Keeping Connecticut Healthy
PSE Change =
Policy
Systems
Environmental Change
• An approach on how to effectively improve
health in a community
• Prioritizes creating or changing infrastructure
to support healthy behavior across populations
• Focuses on modifying context in which people
live through changing policy, systems, and/or
environment to make healthy choices available
and easy for everyone
• Where you live affects how you live – you
simply cannot make healthy decisions if
healthy options are not available to you
• Makes healthier choices a real, feasible option
for every community member by looking at
laws, rules, and environments that impact our
behavior
Program
PSE Change
Hold a low-cost
community
mammography event
Change appointment hours
to include nights and
weekends
Provide a healthy lunch
at a work meeting
Adopt a healthy food
meeting policy
Sponsor a screening fair
at work
Allow time off every year
for employees to get
screened
Hold free breastfeeding
courses for new moms
Implement WHO 10 Steps
to Successful Breastfeeding
and become a baby friendly
hospital
Policy change includes passing of
laws, ordinances, resolutions,
mandates, regulations, or rules
Examples:
• Adding a tax on unhealthy foods
• Passing an ordinance allowing residents to plant
community gardens in vacant lots
• Schools establishing a policy that prohibits junk food in
school fundraising drives
Systems change involves change made
to the rules within an organization
Examples:
• Creating a community plan to account for health
impacts of new projects
• Creating a certification system of school bake sales to
ensure they are in line with school wellness policy
Environmental change is change made
to the physical environment
Examples:
• Municipality undertakes a planning process to ensure
better pedestrian and bicycle access to main roads
and parks
• Community development includes neighborhood
corridors with pedestrian accommodations meeting
needs of seniors (e.g., adequate benches and ramped
sidewalks)
• Maximizes public health cancer control
resources by extending impact of interventions
to reach populations instead of individuals
• Applicable to all stages of cancer control
continuum, and to various settings including
communities, neighborhoods, schools,
workplaces, and healthcare settings
Examples from CT Cancer Plan, 2014-2017:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Promote use of environmental changes, such as shade structures, to
reduce risk of harmful UV exposure
Implement evidence-based physician and employer reminder systems
and incentives for routine cancer screenings
Support patient navigation programs
Support efforts of CT stakeholders to develop collaborative initiatives
that provide culturally appropriate palliative care education in all
settings, including colleges, hospitals, out-patient settings, long-term
care, pediatric care and veteran care
Advance efforts for policies that support survivorship services (such
as cancer rehabilitation) to be reimbursed by public and private
insurance
Advocate for policy and systems changes that provide for adequate
federal, state, and private funding of hospice care, especially for
underserved populations
• Convener
• Communicator
• Guide
• Educator
• Planner
• Supporter
What role do you see your organization (or you)
playing in the following scenarios?
• Establishing a patient reminder system?
• A policy to assure survivorship care plans?
• Encouraging municipalities to adopt policies
requiring shade structures at town- or city-owned
recreational facilities?
The Power of Unity!
Thank you
Lisa Strelez McCooey, MPH
Comprehensive Cancer Program
Connecticut Department of Public Health
[email protected]
(860) 509-7804